When I see people stealing stuff at marketdays or such, I notice them not because they are handsome, I notice them because I just happened to be looking at the person doing the deed. If someone is remarkably ugly, people will look at the person a lot, I guarantee it. No one is not going to be noticing Sir Elephant Man walking down the road stealing apples. And I don’t consider being a thief a personality trait. Shall we also add bard and knight as traits? You could say “Charismatic” is the bard’s trait and “Honorable” is the knight’s trait, those are personalities, a way of being. But is “Thieving” really the thief’s trait? Is thieving a personality? I’d say kleptomania is more of that part, and it helps the thief in his career of thieving, just like the bard’s way with words help him in his career of writing songs and wooing people. I wouldn’t say “Songwriter” or “Lute player” are personality traits.
The point about negative traits. I am all for negative traits. But they need to have noticable impact in the game and they need to be kind of desirable, even if they are bad. Kleptomania would be a negative trait, but it would be desirable in that it helps you steal valuables. “you’ve been doing it a while you’re better at it, meaning you’re a faster cut purse” sound more like that would be a skill you gain experience in as you use it, which is what will be in the game already.
Arachnophobia… I don’t see when that is going to give anything in the game. Like, when you go down a dungeon, if your character sees a spider on the wall, you will lose control of him and he’ll do a high-pitch shriek that alerts the guards? How often are you going to be captured by someone who thinks putting a spider on you is a way more effective torture method than putting fire on your feet or something?
So yeah, my way of thinking is how The Sims did it. I never played it much, but I liked the Traits and Fatal Flaws. You pick two traits which defines your character from other characters, they are beneficial to you and they don’t hurt nobody (The “Evil” trait doesn’t hurt anybody, but your sim would take enjoyment out of seeing others getting hurt, so it works well with the “Bloodthirsty” fatal flaw, the desire to pick a fight with others.) Then you pick one Fatal Flaw, and it don’t necessarily have to have a negative impact on anyone like Bloodthirsty is. You could be a Compulsive Gambler, you just need to gamble everyday to not get sad, or you could be Cowardly and don’t like to go out at dark and run away from fights. I’m not saying Kingdom Come should have traits exactly like this though, because The Sims is still a game about taking care of people’s need, and KC is not. But I like the idea of “two positives, one negative” as no one is perfect, and no one is imperfect either.
